January has not been a great month for SLI’s Global Absolute Return Strategies, the Aviva Investors Multi-Strategy or Invesco Global Targeted Return products, which promise to deliver slow but steady performances no matter how volatile or inhospitable the investment environment.
New data from RBC CM shows that all three funds have delivered negative returns month-to-date, though have regained some ground in recent days. AIMS is currently the biggest underperformer (-0.83%), followed by GARS (-0.59%) and Invesco GTR (-0.24%).
However, of the multi-asset trio, GARS’ performance over 2016 was “notably lagging,” as it delivered negative returns of -2.7% over 12-months, compared with AIMS and Invesco GTR who managed slight positive returns.
Measuring levels of returns from the middle of 2014, the time AIMS was formed, also highlights the discrepancy in performances of GARS and its peers. While AIMS delivered 9.6% and Invesco GTR over 10.5%, SLI’s strategy has only returned 3.8%.
The most recent fund flow data seems to spell trouble for GARS as well. RBC CM estimates that the fund haemorrhaged £1.6bn in just December, which was an unusually strong month for Aviva’s and Invesco’s multi-asset products. For the full-year, they anticipate GARS’ racked up circa £4.1bn in outflows.
And RBC CM expects “outflows to continue irrespective of GARS performance” in 2017.
